New Russian River Pride
‘Cassandro’
ARTS
SFFD trial continues
17
ARTS
07
04
17
Sean Dorsey Dance
The
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Folsom Street welcomes the world for 40th fair
Rick Gerharter
Several dozen volunteers painted a street mural “Black Trans Lives Matter” in August 2020 in the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets at the corner where Compton’s Cafeteria was located in the Transgender District.
Expanded federal recognition sought for SF trans landmark by Matthew S. Bajko
M
ore expansive federal recognition is now being sought for the site where a transgender uprising against police harassment took place in San Francisco sometime during the summer of 1966. It comes at the suggestion of the overseer for the nation’s list of historic properties. Last October, a statewide California panel had nominated the Tenderloin building where the Compton’s Cafeteria riot occurred for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the exact date for the incident remains a mystery, city officials in November finalized the designation of 101 Taylor Street, as well as the intersection of Turk and Taylor in front of the building, as the city’s 307th landmark. It is reportedly where an angry drag queen patronizing Gene Compton’s Cafeteria threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer as he tried to arrest her without a warrant. It sparked a riot between trans and queer patrons of the 24-hour diner and cops, as detailed in the 2005 documentary “Screaming Queens” by transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D. Building off of Stryker’s research into the incident that had been long forgotten about, Madison Levesque had requested the building that once housed the eatery be listed on the national registry as part of their thesis project for the master’s in public history they earned last year from California State University, Sacramento. At the time of the submission Levesque had been working as a cultural landscape inventory steward for the National Park Service. Earlier this year Levesque, who is queer and uses they/them pronouns, took a job as an architectural historian with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. In March, they learned from the California Office of Historic Preservation that the Compton’s federal register listing request had been sent back for revision. See page 6 >>
Vol. 53 • No. 38 • September 21-27, 2023
Participants in the LeatherWalk took a rest and a group photo outside of the Oasis nightclub September 17, one of several stops on the walk that started from City Hall and ended at Eagle Plaza in South of Market.
by John Ferrannini
T
he 40th annual Folsom Street Fair is bringing leatherfolk and kinksters to San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood from around the world Sunday, September 24. The fair’s footprint will run between Eighth
and Division streets, with Howard Street marking the northern border and Harrison Street marking the southern border. There will be entrances at Folsom and 13th, Howard at Ninth, 10th and 11th streets, and Harrison at Ninth, 11th and 12th streets. There will also be a special entrance at Folsom and Eighth streets, where the San Francisco De-
partment of Public Health will provide vaccines for the mpox virus. On August 30, the city issued a health advisory after an uptick in diagnoses, as the Bay Area Reporter reported. Since then, however, only one new San Francisco case has been reported, according to DPH data The fair runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. See page 14 >>
Rick Gerharter
www.ebar.com
California set to further protect LGBTQ youth with new laws by Matthew S. Bajko
W
ith LGBTQ student rights coming under attack by conservative-led school boards and Republican leaders across California, a batch of bills expected to soon become law aims to provide a wide array of legal protections and support to LGBTQ youth inside and out of the classroom. The legislation is now before Governor Gavin Newsom to sign by an October 14 deadline to do so. Newsom has been out front this year in pushing back against a rollback of LGBTQ progress in the state’s public schools. His threatening a major fine against a Riverside County school district led to its elected board’s reversing course on banning instructional materials that covered the late gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk. It led Newsom’s office to work closely with gay Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Perris) on amending his Assembly Bill 1078 so that it prohibits school districts from banning books in classrooms and libraries because of their LGBTQ content or covering topics like race. It includes an emergency clause, so the bill will take effect immediately once Newsom signs it. Senate Bill 857 by gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) requires State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond to convene a task force on the needs of LGBTQ+ pupils by July
Courtesy Governor’s office
The Legislature has sent Governor Gavin Newsom more than a dozen LGBTQ-related bills to consider signing into law.
1, 2024. According to the bill, the advisory body would be tasked with assisting in the implementation of supportive policies and initiatives to address LGBTQ+ pupil education and issue a report on its work by January 1, 2026. AB 5, the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, authored by gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Santa Monica/West Hollywood), mandates that teachers and credentialed staff who serve public school pupils in grades seven to 12 annually take at least one hour of online training in LGBTQ cultural competency beginning with the 2025-2026 academic year through 2031. The
BREAKING NEWS • EXCLUSIVE CONTENT • ONLINE EXTRAS • SPECIAL OFFERS & DISCOUNTS • GIVEAWAYS
ebar.com/subscribe
California Department of Education expects to roll out the training by June 30, 2025, six years after state legislators adopted a bill calling for its creation. Under SB 760 by state Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), all K-12 public schools in California would have to provide at least one easily accessible all-gender restroom for students “to use safely and comfortably during school hours.” Thurmond hailed the passage of the bills, having supported Laird’s bill and co-sponsored the other three. Like Newsom, he has been frontand-center this year speaking out against the various anti-LGBTQ school policies being brought forward. “Dangerous trends have emerged recently. A small group of extremists has sought to divide communities by advancing policies to ban books related to civil rights for communities of color and the LGBTQ+ community, to force school districts to ‘out’ LGBTQ+ students, and to restrict inclusive curriculum. We needed to act quickly and reject these policies,” stated Thurmond. While unlikely to be successful, conservatives continue to push back against Jackson’s AB 1078 and have been calling on Newsom to veto the bill. In a recent email blast the California Policy Center criticized it for gutting the power of local school boards and parents. See page 14 >>